Leeds rockers These Monsters jump into their second full-length album ‘Heroic Dose,’ a 28 minute cacophony of crashing drums and gritty guitars.
The whole album has a gritty, dirty, raw sound that starts right off with ‘Very Strong Very Clever’ and never lets off. It’s all pounding and crashing, talk-singing and screeching screams that at first have the potential to charm you.
Until you realize that’s all you’re going to get out of ‘Heroic Dose’. Each song is so similar; it takes a few seconds (or minutes) to realize the track has changed. While the sound is definitely fun and anything but serious, no single track stands out; they all melt together.
The title track hits you with crazy vocals with tons of instrumentals and repetition. ‘When The Going Gets Weird’ fittingly sums up the album: it’s rock with a weird twist, with no discernable structure, unfocused noise, and repetition that makes every song sound exactly the same.
It’s difficult to even choose songs to talk about individually, since they’re all so incredibly similar. Sure, there will be a cool guitar riff here, an interesting arrangement there, but not enough that you could pick it out of a lineup. Sometimes the only way you know what song you are listening to is because These Monsters has a penchant for screaming out the song titles in lieu of writing lyrics, like in ‘Same Sex Scene’.
‘Your Mother’s Lover’ is the only track that does throw in something different to help it stand out. It has a much faster pace with frantic energy and an intensity missing on the rest of the album. It sounds as if it is moving somewhere, with distinct, separate parts that fit together nicely. If there was even any attempt on the rest of the tracks to give them a bit more structure found here, every song could have been elevated.
All of this isn’t to say ‘Heroic Dose’ isn’t good. It just isn’t for everybody. People will either love These Monsters or hate them, and to even give them a chance you’ll have to be open minded. The gritty, raw sound has a crazy, lighthearted vibe that definitely has a time and place, you’ll just have to figure out when and where that is.
2.5/5
‘Heroic Dose’ by These Monsters is out now on Function Records.
These Monsters link: Website|Facebook|Twitter
Words by Jenny Gagas (@Jenny_herself)
